Another Lifetime
by Sakura's Pointe Shoes
Summary: Maybe next lifetime, they might have had a chance. A vignette based on the movie Anna and the King.


**Title:** Another Lifetime

**Genre:** Romance/Angst

**Summary:** When King Mongkut learns of Anna's injury during her intervention in the battle against Alak's army, their quarrel leads to some long-awaited revelations.

**A/N:** Based on the 1999 movie 'Anna and the King' with Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-fat. This vignette was meant to replace the ending of the movie, I felt it was lacking. Anyway, enjoy and review if you wish.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Anna and the King, either of the characters or their world. This fic is for fun, not money.

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The violence of his temper was indeed alarming at its full force, she realized not for the first time, as King Mongkut threw open the doors to his sitting room chamber, where she had been quietly reading by herself. She held back an anguished sigh, and she made sure to keep her composure as it would not be wise to show this man how he startled her. 

She did not rise to curtsey, she merely closed her book and set it on the adjacent end table beside the sofa she was resting on. She straightened imaginary wrinkles over her skirts and primly clasped her hands on her lap.

"Was there something you wanted, Your Majesty?" Anna kept her tone polite, but clipped, so as to convey her irritation at being imposed upon. Lately it had been harder and harder to check her temper with the King, a sign of danger to her, because affectionate familiarity made it difficult for her to remember her place whilst speaking to him.

"I am told that Ma'am was hurt during encounter with Alak's men. Why did you not tell King of this? Why must King learn from Louis through idle conversation that _Ma'am's arm_ was burned by fireworks used to scare Alak's army?" He all but shouted at her.

If the situation had not been so volatile, Anna might have found it amusing how he expressed his concern for her health through such anger. She took this as a cue to stand, so she stood to her full height and raised her chin in defiance.

"I didn't think much about it at the time. If you would recall, _Your Majesty_, I might have been a little precoccupied trying to save a handful of men from being viciously slaughtered! It hardly matters that I may have gotten a small battle scar." She crossed over to stand by the banister, looking out through the glass-less window that offered quite a view of the river.

"King insists you see royal physician, for treatment of such." He said, more gently this time. Although she had her back to him, she could feel his presence directly behind her.

"The burn has healed just fine. I shan't need to see a physician, I can assure you, Your Majesty." Her voice had grown quiet too, but she was glancing down at her right forearm where she knew said burn was underneath her white cotton sleeve.

Next thing she knew, the King was beside her and so close that she was reminded of that tense evening on the beach, that moment they had shared that served only to confirm her feelings for this stubborn, irascible monarch.

"Which arm?" He inquired, an emotion she dared not name shone from his beautiful eyes. She found that she could not speak, so she raised her right arm to him, and he proceeded in rolling up her sleeve so that he could see her injury for himself.

She heard his tiny gasp when he had full view of her burn. She winced as he gently traced his index finger on the outside of it. Much to her dismay, he looked up to frown at her because he now knew that it actually did pain her.

"Anna," He murmured, "This is serious. How can Ma'am worry so much about others that she neglects own health?"

"I..I do suppose it seems utterly silly to you now, but I couldn't think about myself when the people I love were in danger." She blushed visibly at her verbal slip. She tried to turn away from him again but his firm grasp on her uninjured arm prevented her from moving.

The silence that pressed down around them was stifling, the room seemed to fade in and out of her vision. Everything was about this man, Mongkut, her world knew of nothing else that mattered but the feeling of being near to him.

She was entranced by the look of surprise on his face and was compelled to ask, "What?"

He smiled widely, and his hands migrated from her arms to her dainty waist. "What you said. Say again, King wishes to hear it louder."

She laughed quietly, aware of how close their faces were, how clearly she could see the love and desire in his eyes.

"Of course I love you, Your Majesty. After all that we have been through, how could I not?"

That was all it took for him to span the distance between them and claim her lips in a kiss. He was a good head taller than her, and he had to stoop to reach her. Her arms wound around him hesitantly but then more firmly as their kiss deepened. He could feel everything about her, her wonderful softness, the pliancy of her lips that had spouted so many valid arguments against him, and most of all, the gentle swell of her curves that were so well covered up by her thickly layered gowns.

He tasted like cigars, not a big surprise considering how often he smoked. Anna felt her knees buckle with the tremor of sheer want that was running through her and if he hadn't been holding her so tightly, she would have fallen to her knees.

They pulled apart when the fervency of their kiss became too over-whelming. She felt a touch of delight when she realized he was breathing heavily, and he looked unusually flustered.

"Where do we go from here, Your Majesty? Somehow I don't get the feeling that your advisors or your wives would take kindly to the change in our relationship." She whispered, some sadness creeping into the faint lines of her fair face.

He just held her, savouring the feel of her in his arms. "Nothing will change my love for Ma'am. Even if in this lifetime, we will not have chance to express it."

Her vision was clouded with tears, but she fought to keep them from falling. She would take the warmth this moment offered undisputed, for once, she neither wished to deny herself indulgence or to cut short what may be the only time she got to spend with him as man she loved, not as a king she could not have.

"Maybe next lifetime, then, my love." She whispered, resting her cheek on his broad chest. He gathered her closer, and they both watched the water flow down the river in silence.


End file.
